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Bridges Racing and Dean Kearney are expanding and looking to fill various full and part-time positions. Any time there is a chance to get your foot in the door, it is extremely valuable, no matter what work you do. And it just so happens that a great opportunity is currently presenting itself in professional drifting for upcoming fabricators, admin, race support/prep crew, videographers, etc. looking to grow within the sport. Not only will you be working with a top level team, but you may also get to travel, work in various conditions, and build your network within the industry.

Some driver examples that have had similar experiences working on a Formula DRIFT team and learned from their experience within the sport are Rapper Dan Savage who crewed with Chelsea DeNofa before winning the 2014 PRO2 Championship, Jonathan Nerren who crewed with Vaughn Gittin JR before starting his own multi-car team competing in Formula DRIFT Canada, and Dylan Hughes who currently crews with Chris Forsberg and won the 2016 USDrift PRO/AM Series in his first full year of competition. I also know of countless others that are definitely on their way to make an impact in the sport in some form or another.

As for videographer examples, you have Mark Lenardon (late videographer for Motor Trend Magazine) who started filming with Drift Indy and Midwest Drift Union, moved on to film for Club Loose and Bloodmasters, traveled with numerous drivers in Formula DRIFT such as Tony Angelo and Geoff Stoneback, and then went on to create content and film for productions such as Hot Rod Garage and Road Kill. Sam Nalven (1/3 of Maximum Driftcast) paid his own way to attend and cover Formula DRIFT events when he started producing his “Drift Chronicles” before he worked on “Tuerck’d“, “Drift Garage“, “Off Track” and more recently with “Vaughn Gittin JR“, “Snap-On”, and “Donut Media“.

If you’re still interested and think you have the drive for it, interviews will be held this Saturday morning at the Race Shop in Huntington Beach, CA for local people and those not lucky enough to live in sunny SoCal can schedule a Skype interview. Information about drivers, team, work shop, and schedule for 2017 will be disclosed to selected applicants only. CV’s/Resume sent to info@bridgesracing.com

Super D Cup is a newly announced drifting tournament from the group that brought you the Super D Matsuri at Grange Motor Circuit last October. The events will be focused on driver skill, with a format centered around the driver, maximizing seat time and excitement. Each round of competition will feature a different course layout replicating a technical Japanese circuit that forces the driver to rely on their technique, not their machine. This aspect of Super D Cup will allow anyone with drifting skills to be competitive!

Registration isn’t up yet, but with the first round in just 38 days, I would assume it will open up any day now. In the mean time, you can view their 2017 Rulebook here to make sure you’re ready.

Ola Jaeger hails from Norway and has taken Fredric Aasbo’s old MKIV Toyota Supra out of storage and is building it to run the Pro 2 series of Formula Drift. This could be an interesting new addition to the Pro 2 field that has lacked strong competition in years past. It will be interesting to see how quickly he can get the car together before Orlando in just about 75 days from now.

The latest meeting of the FIA Drifting Working Group was held in Paris on February 6th, 2017. I was invited to present the results of the Judges Working Group meeting that I spoke about HERE, and to get a consensus from the group on how to proceed with some key issues that were raised during that meeting. As for the Drifting Working Group meeting, I wouldn’t go so far as to say the specifics of the meeting are confidential, but I don’t want to delve too deeply at the moment. In general terms, a few subjects including standardizing technical regulations, safety regulations and of course the results of the aforementioned Judging Working Group meeting from this past December were discussed.

Kenneth Moen has announced today that he is stepping away from Formula Drift for 2017. It sounds like he will be looking to sweep up the competition in Europe as James Deane arrives in America to battle in Formula Drift. My two most stand out Kenneth Moen moments were his podium at Homestead in 2014 and when he drove Sam Hubinette’s Dodge Challenger in 2011 at Wall Speedway. His insane and sometimes over the top wide open throttle style will be missed in Formula Drift for 2017.

But when I watch back I get goosebumps. Even if I had a small budget I was living the dream. I was doing what every drifter dream about. I was driving Formula Drift in America with the best drivers in the world. And even more important, I made some friends for the rest of my life. A huge thanks to everyone that helped me out on my way, friends, family, fans and sponsors. I wish everyone of my FD friends good luck in 2017, I will be watching you! Now it’s time for me to focus on Europe.

Last week I traveled to Riga, Latvia, to speak to some of the Baltic region’s drifting organizers, drivers, judges and some people that will hopefully step up and become new judges in the near future. For those that aren’t aware, the Baltic region is comprised of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which are all nestled together on Russia’s Western border just North of Belarus and Poland. Approximately 60 people were in attendance, which impressed me immensely as most had to drive between 1-3 hours to attend and they stayed until the very end, asking questions and offering different points of view throughout the night. Read More…

Ireland is a small country in the North Atlantic Ocean with a small population of 4,500,000 people (same population as Louisana or Kentucky) for a comparison. I visited Ireland for the first time in November for a 62 hours and got a quick feel of the country. It is really amazing how powerful and impactful the drift scene has grown on this little island compared to America or mainland Europe (more Eastern). IDC is an amazing series that produces a large talent pool of drifters (James Deane who is arriving in Formula Drift for 2017). With that being said, I found the article written by IDC bossman David Egan. Here is an excerpt I found interesting and you can follow the link below this quote and read his full write up.

“Firstly, 95% of the general population have no idea what drifting is or have a complete misconception. This is actually a good thing in many ways. That means that only 5% are making the decision to attend or not and the sport has not been rejected by the masses. Therefore our simple and significant task should be to give a much higher percentage of people the option. The fact that we are seeing attendances of over 10,000 at certain events, from 5% of the drift-educated population, is a good indication that the potential for mainstream success is there. For 2017, we have redesigned our marketing strategy to include numerous crossovers with other motor-sports, sports, celebrities and events. We are planning on attending over 20 non-drift related events to promote the championships and perform demonstrations. Our in-house media team have partnered with numerous magazines and online blogs, both nationally and internationally, providing in-depth reports and reviews on all events. We aim to produce over 180 videos and 4 documentaries during the season and have constant behind-the-scenes content streaming online. Our improved free live-stream service can be viewed on any device and will rival conventional TV broadcasts in terms of quality and production.”

The 2017 Street Driven Tour schedule has arrived and it looks like it will be an awesome third season! Come enjoy drifting in a bash style format all day with some cool drifting games to break up the day and a big finish with a burnout contest. Street Driven Tour is returning to the same locations as 2016 but with a new track and some dates shifting:

As I’m sure most readers are aware, the FIA has taken a keen interest in drifting as of late. This was first brought to my attention last year at Round 1 in Long Beach when Jim Liaw introduced me to a man from the FIA by the name of Morgan Caron. I was told he was there to “check it out” and see how we did things at Formula Drift, but not much else. After that we heard of meetings at the FIA offices in Paris between some of the organizers of the biggest and most important drift championships in the world. They were there to give their opinions and ideas of the direction of the sport globally, and help the FIA understand what the sport is all about. Read More…

It looks like Formula DRIFT will have its first ever Australian driver this season with Josh Robinson. Robinson officially announced the news by posting up his confirmation letter from Formula DRIFT on his Facebook page today. For those of you who might not be familiar with Robinson, he has been drifting in Japan and Australia the last few years, and most recently came in second place overall in the 2016 G1 Grand Prix Series.

The next question will be whether or not he is allowed to compete in his 1000-hp Holden Ute. Currently according to the 2017 rulebook, pickup trucks are not allowed (see B & D). However if you reference the next line (E), there is still hope we might get to see it in action this season.

A. Eligible models must be considered a “production vehicle” and have had a minimum build run of 600 units in each model year.B. Eligible body styles include: coupe, sedan, convertible or wagon and have no more than 5 doors.C. Vehicles must maintain the original OEM steel unibody and/or steel frame and rear suspension mounting points. structure between the OEM frontD. No trucks or SUVs will be allowed.E. Vehicles that do not meet the above eligibility criteria must petition for approval from FORMULA DRIFT.